Welcome to Around Delta! It is intended to be a place for residents of Delta Colorado to toss around ideas about the future of the unique town they live in. Let the world know how we can improve this wonderful place to live!

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

What Should Happen to Downtown?

So in 2008, the design for the Hwy 50 bypass should get completed. The question in my mind is, "What should happen to the downtown when the bypass is open?" I would love to see the downtown area developed to encourage people to spend time there. What do you think of this idea?

Close main street between 3rd & 4th, and 4th and 5th, and replace the pavement with trees, tables, a small performing area, pads for vendors, etc. For a block or two as the hwy approaches 3rd & 5th, reduce Main Street to one lane each way, and make parking diagonal. When they get to 3rd or 5th, they would be diverted East or West. 4th would remain open with pullouts for picking up and dropping people off.

The idea would be to bring people back into downtown as a destination. I could imagine a number of the vacant properties housing galleries, craft shops, and other specialty shops, perhaps drawing in people from around the Western Slope.

Restaurants could open patios out front or setup such that people could take food out into the common area. Bresnan could setup an area where people could kick back and watch the news, Bank of the west could setup an ATM that gave out Delta Dollars, The Egyptian could have an outside concession, Sophris could blanket the area with WIFI, etc.

If it worked, I would expect that the existing businesses would begin to draw in more and more people as the locals began spending more time downtown. Downtown would become alive!

Of course, if the downtown were to become a destination, then people would want to move in as well, that that could begin to spur a turn around in the housing market.

This is just the vision of one person who would love to see Delta reach it's full potential.

Do you think this could work? Would you like to see something like this? Why or Why not? I would love to hear what people are thinking about the future of downtown Delta?

while i agree that this vision for downtown is inspired, it makes me a little nervous, because doing so would make more and more people want to move here, thus increasing the population, thus bringing in aspects of larger towns or cities that i don't necessarily want to see happening here....i have fallen in love with the "small town feel/atmosphere" here, and i'm afraid that by doing something like that to downtown, it would grow too quickly and lose that charm, and expose the town to too many elements that just don't belong in a small town....